A Swan Song
by Yukitoshuu Itsumademo
Summary: Every swan has a mournful song, and those songs are the most beautiful of them all. Something happens to Hermione's parents, and she doesn't know if she can go on, but Harry and Ron show her she can, especially Harry...And then Voldemort comes along and t


A Swan Song

"A swan's song is the most beautiful music out there,but with that beauty comes sorrow."

The sun radiated a weak glow into the transfiguration room, which barely let the pupils residing in the room read the text they had been assigned, properly. The air hung low and heavy and smelled strongly of a musky sweat from the layers the students were forced to wear, even at such extreme temperatures at the end of the school year as summer made her presence known. An eerie glom fell over the classroom as Harry realized for the second time that day that Hermione was nowhere to be seen. He knew this for a fact since they always sat together in their NEWT potions class--the only class Ron did not share with Harry, and the one that he wished they had together. NEWT Potions was so boring that even Hermione could not keep him awake with the constant pokings in the side as a warning that he should pay attention. She constantly reminded him that even though he despised Snape, he still needed to pay attention so he could pass his NEWTS to become an Auror. He had almost fallen asleep without her this morning.

After a late breakfast and just making the owl post, Hermione left to go back to her room to retrieve an extra roll of parchment for that day's potions lecture. Just then, an unknown owl came up behind her and deposited into her hand a roll of parchment with the ministry's seal on it. Harry and Ron had urged her to open it, but she just shrugged it off, telling them it was probably a letter of gratitude from the Minister, thanking her for her interest in the Ministry foundings in which she had interveiewed the Minister for her paper in History of Magic. Cornelius Fudge had been considerably nicer to Harry and his friends ever since the Minister of Magic himself had seen the face of Voldemort. Fudge had been much more careful these days after the outrage of angry wizarding families for the Ministry's witholding the news of Voldemort's return from the public. Fudge had no wishes to be overthrown from his position, so he gladly agreed to an interview, hoping the public eye would catch his outreaching to the students.

Despite her promptness to class, and always letting the class know her presence by asking and answering all the questions, Hermione was no where to be seen.

"Where the bloody hell is Hermione?" Ron asked Harry just when he thought he was the only one who noticed her absence.

"I dunno. Do you reckon we should--"

"Mr. Potter," a stern voice appeared behind him. he turned around and was met by Mc Gonagall's irritated stare. "Do you or Mr. Weasley have something you would like to share with the class, or would you rather discuss it over detention?"

"S-sorry Professor," they both stammered. Ron gave Harry a glance, as Mc Gonagal returned to her lesson, that they would search for Hermione after Transfiguration. For now, Harry would have to force his eyes to stay open as he endured the rest of Mc Gonagal's absolutely FASCINATING lecture on turning a stick into a sword.

"Where do you reckon Hermione went?" Ron asked as he and Harry walked out of Transfiguration.

"I duno," Harry replied, trying to think that maybe Hermione had gone to the library, but he couldn't find any reason why she would need to, especially during class. "She wasn't in potions either."

Ron stopped walking as they rounded the corner. Harry looked at him and he could see Ron was thinking harder than he had all day in classes. "You mean, ever since breakfast, Hermione's been missing?"

"Seems so," Harry looked down the deserted hallway toward the infirmary. "You don't suppose she's sick?"

"I don't think so...at least, she didn't look like it, did she?" Harry shook his head and peered down the hallway and toward the stairs. "Do you think something in that letter was upsetting and she could be in the Gryffindor common room crying her eyes out. Girls seem to do that a lot." Harry nodded his head, remembering how much Cho cried...

"Or maybe," Ron continued as they headed quickly for the stairs, "Fudge hated her and sent her a nasty letter telling her how much he despised her interview. It doesn't take a howler to make Hermione cry, unless it's that rediculous rubbish that Skeeter woman wrote a few years back." Ron and Harry continued walking up the stairs until they got to the portrait of the deaf-toned fat lady who seemed to be too busy talking with her friend, Violet, an ugly old witch that knew too many useless rumors about the students in the school.

"Excaliber," Ron said quickly and the fat lady huffed and muttered something they couldn't quite hear about 7th years thinking they ran the school, and how the Head boy should really do something to quiet down his red-haired friend. The boys didn't even bother thanking her, but instead ran right into the Gryffindor common room, only to find it deserted, and clean, something Hermione wouldn't be so happy about, despite her perfectionism. Hermione was the founder of S.P.E.W., or the Society for the Promotion of Elfish Welfare, and she knew the House elves cleaned the common room without wage. Every moment she didn't study, or...study, or hang out with Harry or Ron, she spent knitting scarves and hats for the house elves to find, so they could be freed.

Harry smiled as he remembered the many times Hermione had yelled at Ron for making a mess and ranting on about how the House Elves would have to clean it up before cleaning up whatever mess Ron had made, herself.

"She's not here, Harry," Ron said as he returned from checking a closet that Harry knew Hermione would never fir in, no matter how skinny she was. "Maybe you should check your room, since I can't go up there you know," Ron said glumly, and Harry knew it was hard for Ron since he was separated from his two best friends and left out of something. Harry had been surprised when he found out _he_ would be Head Boy instead of Ron, and he knew Ron felt left out.

"Right, she could be up there," Harry said as he headed for the crimson Gryffindor poster that bore the signature lion on it and hung on the wall. He carefully moved the silky banner to the side and came across a wall. Three knocks on the wood and a picture appeared before his eyes. The portrait housed a short and very agressive knight who scared too many of the first years in the castle with his threats to fight them, so Hermione suggested to Dumbledore that Sir Cadogan could guard the Head boy and girl entrance. "What an important secret I am bestowing! Nay shall anyone get past whilst I guard this door without the password or a duel," Sir Cadogan had shouted mirthfully, bearing his teeth that sparkled brighter than the clunky armor he was donned in for eternity. The only bad thing about having Sir Cadogan as the protector for the Head Boy and Girl room is he wouldn't let anyone in (after being yelled at by Mc Gonagall for letting Sirius Black in Gryffindor Tower their 3rd year) besides the Head Boy and Girl, the professors, or the Headmaster. That meant Ron wasn't allowed in.

"Well hello there young knave," the short man called from his horse that was too small even for him. "How is thy lady?"

"I don't know. I have to get in though," Harry said hastily. "Snuffles"

"Of course, Sir Potter! Carry on!" he said as the portrait swung open and Harry flew up the spiraled staircase. As soon as he came upon a wooden door, Harry threw it open and ran into the Head Boy and Girl's common room.

"Hermione!" He yelled, but his shouts were met with a silence that frightened him.

"Hermione," Harry shouted again as he peered into her room, but that shout too was unanswered. Her room lay unoccupied and just as it looked this morning...but something wasn't right about it...

Harry walked over to her bed and found the lilac sheets were tucked tightly into the matress, making it look as though it belonged in some sort of muggle showcase. Nothing was wrong with her windowsill. All her books remained tucked neatly away on the wood, obstructing the sun's ability to reach into her room only slightly. Yep, all her books were there. All seven were..._wait...there should be eight,_ Harry thought as he sifted through each one to see which one was missing and unsurprisingly, it was her potions book that wasn't there..._meaning Hermione hasn't been up here between Potions and Transfiguration._

Harry looked across the room to see if she had picked up her parcment and his eyes were met with the most peculiar thing. Her roll of parchment had been replacd with the letter the ministry had delivered late this morning. Harry strode across the rooma nd picked the parchment up and glanced once again around the room to make sure Hermione wasn't gong to walk out from her bathroom starkers and yell at him for being in her room without her permission, reading her private letters.

Harry adjusted his eyes back to the letter and focused on the heavy scrawl that was no doubt that of the Minister. As Harry read the letter, the look of worry on his face soon turned to that of horror as he quickly pocketed the parchment and flew back down the stairs, almost running into a frazzled and nervous Ron.

"We have to find Hermione, now!" Harry shouted as he pulled the parchment out of his robe and thrust it into his best friend's hand. Harry tapped his foot impatiently as Ron finished the letter with an unsettling gaze etched onto his face.

"We'd better split up, Harry," Ron said as the both of them fled out of the portrait hole in search of their grief-stricken friend.

It had been almost two hours since Harry and Ron had begun searching for Hermione, and Harry was beginning to panic. Harry knew from the letter that Hermione would not be in her right mind when they found her--if they found her. For all they knew, Hermione may have run deep into the Forbidden forest and with all the centaurs and spiders, and with the threat of Voldemort hanging in a dark cloud about their heads, the owl may have not been from the Ministry at all. Voldemort may have lured Hermione to him and Harry may not find out until it's too late and Voldemort has killed the one person who means most to him; even more than Ron.

Harry wasn't sure when these feelings crept up inside of him. Perhaps they began around the time Ron and Hermione started dating a year ago. That relationship didn't last much longer than his relationship with Cho, and things had seemed to go back to normal between the trio...at least to the passerbyer. Harry suspected Ron may have a small clue that Harry has feeling for Hermione that go beyond platonic friendship, but if he noticed, he didn't say anything. Ron was still dealing with his breakup and trying not to act too awkward around her. It wasn't a secret that Ron never knew the right thing to say at the right time, which was why Harry wanted to find Hermione before Ron. He kenw it was selfish, but he wanted to be the one to comfort her in her time of turmoil. After all, he knew exactly what she was going through from a different level.

Just as Harry finished skimming the restricted section of the library (which he wasnow allowed to enter without permission, being Headboy and all), Harry was about to give up when his intuition sent a vision through his mind. It had only been a quick picture of a certain area of the castle, but the location was unmistakable to Harry after having spent so much time there just thinking about nothing and everything...and her.

So many nights he had found her up here after their rounds as the head of the prefects. SHe alays stood there, gazing into the endless expanse of sky. The perfectly irrdescent moon did wonders to hilight her creamy complexion. So many times he had wanted to stretch his hand out and run it along her smooth skin, or pull one of her silky tendrils of hair between his fingers and let it bounce back in place like a spring. Harry longed for the time when he could feel her body against his and take in the scent of her, and let it engulf his body and erase his mind of everything that was going on and focus on one thing: her.

Harry could almost picture her standing there, overlooking the lucious land that stretched on for miles as he took the stairs to the astronomy tower two by two; his heart feeling as though it would beat out of his chest. His brain willed his heart to slow, but his legs still carried him faster and he was sure he had forgotten how to breathe as he threw the doors to the tower open, and was met by a startled gasp.

"Oh, Merlin, Hermione," Harry choked as he wasted no time crossing the damp room and buried her into his chest, soaking her messy hair with tears and sobbs that racked his body from worry and relief all at the same time. "I'm so sorry, Hermione." Harry cried into her hair, not really knowing why _he_ was crying. She was the one who lost her parents, afterall, but Harry felt a tinge of guilt, since it had been Voldemort who had killed the innocent muggles. It was all his fault. If Harry had never gotten so close to Hermione, her parents would be here to see their brilliant daughter walking proudly through the Gr eat Hall to make her valedictorean speech, and recieve the diploma she deserved most out of anyone at Hogwarts. He could almost see the happiness radiating off her face as her parents hugged her afterwards, bringing a fresh wave of tears to his eyes.

Because of him, this would never be.

Hermione didn't respond. She only cried harder into his white shirt that had to be salty fromall of her tears. Harry could feel a tug at the collar of his shirt and knew that she was forcing him to look at her, so he did. He wasn't ready for what his eyes met.

Hermione's eyes were red and puffy, probably from crying all day. Oddly enough, though, they didn't remind him of Cho's eyes when she cried. Harry knew he shouldn't compare them, but Cho's eyes had pleaded Harry for sympathy, but Hermione...Hermione's eyes held sincere pain; a pain he often felt pricking his own eyes at night as he heard his mother's final pleads for mercy echo through his mind. She died because of him. She was a sacrafice, and so was Hermione's parents, and it was all his fault.

"Please, Harry," Hermione pleaded, her voice smaller than he had ever heard it. "I don't want you to be sorry. Stop blaming yourself for something that has never been your fault."

"But if we were never friends, Voldemort would have never killed them..."

"And I would be miserable for not having friends like you and Ron, and it would make my parents miserable knowing how unhappy I would be. They love me, and I love them so much..." Hermione choked on the last few words and Harry held onto her, like a drowning man, as he let her let out the rest of her thought. "Oh, God, Harry! I miss them so much!"

Another sob left Harry's throat as Hermione buried her head into his neck and cried like a child who fell off the swing at the playground and was looking for solace in his comforting arms. Harry only hugged her closer to him and rocked her as she cried. Harry's shirt was so damp with tears one would look at him and wonder if he hadn't fancied a swim with the Giant Squid. Harry didn't care, though.

Suddenly, Harry felt another presence enter the room and before he could look up, Ron had crossed the room and held Hermione in his arms from the other side, whispering words of sympathy to her, showing Hermione that his emotion range went way beyond a teaspoon by joining in with tears of his own. At this moment, the trio had never been closer than this. Their cries of anguish and dessolation for Hermione's parents were silent enough that no one came up to question the noise of three people crying as if they were three bear cubs who had lost their mother.

The wind rolled through the astronomy tower window and carried with it the faint cries as it transported their swan song through the rustling trees and off to a familiar cave where a man with eyes like the devil smirked maliciously as his lips curled even tighter, realizing phase one had been completed

_Potter will die._

Okay, that's not the end, so just wait for the update. I'll try update asap and since I have ch 2 & 3 written allready, it shouldn't take too long. I have 3 AP classes my first semester so it's tough to find time to write, but I'll try my hardest. Thanks soooo much for reading and don't forget to review.

3 Harrynhermione4eva


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